Alumnus Pledges $30-Million to University of Florida; Other Gifts

Six institutions have received big gifts:

• The University of Florida, in Gainesville, has received a pledge of $30-million from William R. Hough, founder of a municipal-bond firm in St. Petersburg, Fla., to support the graduate programs at the Warrington College of Business Administration. The money will support academic programs, faculty, and enhancements to the college, and will help construct a new building. Mr. Hough, who sold his bond company to RBC Dain Rauscher, a securities firm in Minneapolis, and now works there as a consultant, graduated in 1948 as a member of the first class to receive a master’s degree in business administration from the university.
• Santa Clara University, in Calif., has received $20-million from the family of John A. Sobrato, founder and chairman of Sobrato Development Companies, a real-estate development company in Cupertino, Calif., to help build a new library and commons area. Mr. Sobrato, who graduated from the university in 1960 with a bachelor’s degree in business, is a member of the Board of Trustees. His son, John Michael, managing partner at Sobrato Development Companies, and his daughter-in-law, Abby, both graduated from the university in 1983.
• The Asbury Theological Seminary, in Wilmore, Ky., has received a pledge of $10-million from Paul Amos, a co-founder and chairman emeritus of the American Family Life Insurance Company, in Columbus, Ga., and his wife, Jean, to endow a new Ph.D. program in biblical studies. The couple’s son, Daniel, also recently pledged to support operational costs of the program for its first six years.
• The Baltimore Museum of Art has received a $10-million pledge from Dorothy McIlvain Scott to endow operations and programs for its collection of American painting, decorative arts, and sculpture. In 1981, she donated much of her own art collection to the museum and supported the design of a new gallery space for those works. Ms. Scott, who inherited her fortune, has been a trustee of the museum since 1977.
• Hamilton College, in Clinton, N.Y., has received a pledge of $10-million from Keith Wellin, a retired director of Dean Witter Reynolds, an investment company that merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997, and his wife, Wendy, an independent fashion consultant, to help build a new art gallery, studio, and theater. Mr. Wellin, who graduated from the college in 1950 with a bachelor’s degree in English literature, made the gift in honor of his father, an amateur artist and gallery owner. The Wellins had previously given $5-million to the college.
• The Holocaust Memorial Center, in Farmington Hills, Mich., has received $10-million from Alan, Barry, and Clayton Zekelman, co-owners of Atlas Tube Steel, in Windsor, Canada, in memory of their parents, Harry and Wanda Zekelman, and of Harry’s parents and siblings who were killed in the Holocaust. The gift will be used to pay down the debt remaining from building the center.

Other recent gifts:

Bennington College (Vt.): $1-million pledge from Judith Rosenberg Hoffberger, a restaurateur in Colorado, to support science programs and a collaborative project with the Neurosciences Institute, in San Diego. Ms. Hoffberger, who inherited her money, graduated from the college in 1954 with a bachelor’s degree in social science.

Brandeis U. (Waltham, Mass.): $5-million from Gerald Schuster, founder and president of Continental Wingate Company, a Needham, Mass., holding company that owns a variety of businesses, and his wife, Elaine, to support its Institute for Investigative Journalism, which focuses on nonpartisan reporting.

Caldwell Theatre (Boca Raton, Fla.): $1-million pledge from Countess Henrietta de Hoernle, of Boca Raton, for its capital campaign to build a new theater. Her late husband, Adolph, was a German count.

Central Methodist U. (Fayette, Mo.): $2.2-million from an anonymous family to help expand and renovate the university’s sports facilities.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra: $2-million pledge from Mercedes and Sid R. Bass, an investor who inherited oil and other energy companies from his uncle, Sid Richardson. The money will endow the concertmaster position. Ms. Bass is a co-chairwoman of the orchestra’s capital campaign.

Grove City College (Pa.): $5.5-million from Ed Breen, chief executive officer of Tyco International, a manufacturing and services company in Princeton, N.J., and his wife, Lynn, for the college’s capital campaign. Mr. and Ms. Breen both graduated from the college in 1978; he received a bachelor’s degree in business and economics, and she received her degree in economics.

Hebrew SeniorLife (Boston): $2.5-million from Jack Satter, inventor of the Fenway Frank hot dog and a former president of the Colonial Provision Company, in Boston, to support an assisted-living center on its new campus in Dedham, Mass.

Hillsdale County Community Foundation (Mich.): an unrestricted gift of $1-million from an anonymous donor. The gift will be used to support human services.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges (Geneva, N.Y.): $1.3-million bequest from the estate of Jean W. Reeves, a 1934 alumnus who died in 2000 at the age of 89, to endow scholarships for students in the fine and performing arts; and a $1-million bequest from Beatrice Stahl Biggs, a 1926 alumna who died in 2004 at the age of 100, to endow a scholarship for students who demonstrate academic achievement and financial need.

Husson College (Bangor, Me.): $1.5-million pledge of real estate and cash from Sidney Unobskey, a real-estate developer in San Francisco, and his wife, Nancy, a retired social worker in the Office of Patient Services at the California Pacific Medical Center, in San Francisco, to establish a learning center in Calais, Me., for students at Washington County Community College.

The Johns Hopkins Children’s Center (Baltimore): $5-million from David Rubenstein, a co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm in Bethesda, Md., to support a new outpatient facility to treat children and adolescents.

Kansas State U. (Manhattan): $1.1-million from Dennis von Waaden, a retired vice president at American Century Investments, an investment-management company in Kansas City, Mo., and his wife, Sally, to support and expand an investment-management program at the university’s College of Business Administration.

National Corvette Museum (Bowling Green, Ky.): $1.3-million pledge of cash and six Corvettes from Ivan Schrodt, chairman of Integrated Paper Service, a consulting and testing firm in Appleton, Wis., and his wife, Mary, to support the museum’s expansion.

Noble Hospital (Westfield, Mass.): $1.75-million pledge from an anonymous family to support capital improvements and for digital mammography equipment. Members of the family have been treated at the hospital.

Palm Beach Zoo (Fla.): $2.5-million from Melvin J. Levine, a retired president of Atlantic Plastic Containers, in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., and his wife, Claire, for its capital campaign to build a new animal hospital.

Philadelphia Museum of Art: $7-million from Nicholas Karabots, director of Amrep, a magazine-services and real-estate development company in Princeton, N.J., and his wife, Athena, for the museum’s Fund for Eakins’ Masterpiece, which is collecting money to purchase the Thomas Eakins painting “The Gross Clinic” from Thomas Jefferson U., in Philadelphia.

SEED Foundation (Washington): $5-million pledge from Art Modell, former majority owner of the Baltimore Ravens football team, and his wife, Patricia, to establish a public boarding school in Maryland for disadvantaged students.

Southwest Washington Medical Center (Vancouver): $1-million pledge from Al (Corky) Angelo Jr., owner of the Al Angelo Company, a real-estate development and management firm in Vancouver, Wash., and his wife, Linda, for its capital campaign to build a new medical facility.

St. Thomas U. (Miami Gardens, Fla.): $1-million from an anonymous donor to help build and support a science and technology building.

U. of Arizona Foundation (Tucson): $5-million pledge from Paula and Peter Fasseas, co-founders of the Metropolitan Bank Group, in Chicago, to help build a new cancer clinic. Ms. Fasseas also serves as vice chairwoman and Mr. Fasseas as chairman of the Metropolitan Bank Group.

U. of California at Irvine: $1-million pledge from Granville Kirkup, founder of Telmar Network Technology, a distributor of telecommunications equipment in Irvine, to endow a professorship in the department of psychiatry and human behavior. Mr. Kirkup has been treated by Gerald Maguire, a specialist in stuttering who will hold the professorship.

Virginia Wesleyan College (Norfolk): $1.2-million pledge from Nancy DeFord, the incoming president of the international board of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, in Alexandria, Va., and her husband, Robert, owner of DeFord Limited, a real-estate development and investment firm in Virginia Beach, to endow a scholarship and support the annual fund. The college also received $1-million from D. Henry Watts, a retired vice chairman of the Norfolk Southern Corporation, a railroad company, and his wife, Eleanor, to endow a scholarship and support the annual fund and the college’s capital campaign.

The Yard (Chilmark, Mass.): a pledge of property valued at $2-million from its founder and artistic director, Patricia N. Nanon. The Yard is an artists’ residence and performance venue on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts.

–Compiled by Anne W. Howard